To review the sufficiency of Early Years placements (six monthly update).

Key lines of enquiry:

• What action is being taken by the Council to influence the market and ensure that there are sufficient early years places available to meet the demands across the whole of Torbay?
• What is happening regarding preparedness for the new requirements coming into force in September? 
• Do we have over capacity of placements with the falling birth population?

The Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Councillor Bye and the Divisional Director of Learning and Partnership Hubs, Rachel Setter presented the submitted report on Early Years Sufficiency Duty and responded to questions.

Members asked questions in relation to:

·                     was the early years provision in the areas where it was needed;

·                     how many schools provided nurseries;

·                     the questionnaire only had 50% response rate, what was being done to improve this, was this showing just the current situation or estimates for September, do we have sufficient places for September;

·                     how were staffing levels with a number of people leaving the sector and the impact on National Insurance contributions;

·                     do we know which providers charge for consumables e.g. nappies (a written response would be provided);

·                     23% of providers had 10 unfilled spaces, 25% had more do we know what age group they were and what extent would the vacancies be taken up by the increase in hours, for the older age children do we encourage them towards school based nursery settings and encourage younger towards private nurseries;

·                     how many responses were received from the carers survey on who was able to access their full early years entitlements and what about the 15% who were not able to respond;

·                     how was affordability defined;

·                     how would the falling birthrate impact capacity in the longer term; and

·                     how many 0 to 4 years olds were there and what percentage of children were not represented and how do we capture that data.

The following responses were provided:

·                     Early years provision was sufficient across the whole of Torbay, with most being required close to where people work.  One nursery was looking at a business plan to see if they could maintain their base funding.  There were approximately 19 nurseries within schools.  Discussions were being held with some schools due to dropping birth rates and less children coming into Reception to see how they could use their nursery provision moving forward.  Future sufficiency was being reviewed alongside consideration under the Children’s Reforms, which were focussing on having more community based teams.

·                     The recent capacity survey was advertised with schools, 0-19 providers and via the Council’s communications and social media.  It was felt hat the low response from parents was due to people being satisfied and being able to access spaces.  There was a separate survey for providers and parents.  The Council had carried out its own mapping exercise and forecasts of birthrates and where people live and access provision and was satisfied that there was sufficient capacity where required.  A written response would be provided on the breakdown of the responses to the surveys.

·                     The Council was working with South Devon College to access apprenticeship programmes, although it could be challenging taking people out of settings to undertake training.  There was not a current problem with staff but this was being closely monitored due to challenges around wider education and cost of living, increase in National Insurance contributions and seeing some of the system struggling to maintain and think about key posts.  Ongoing discussions were being held with providers to see if they had any issues with staff.

·                     The codes for early years entitlement were applied for before a parent could access a provider, sometimes a code was requested but not used.  The Council does not have the information about individual codes.  The majority of parents were validating their codes which was higher than the national average.

·                     Affordability was subjective based on how the parent felt.

·                     Parental preference was mainly to access early years close to where they work with schools being closer to their home due to friendships and after school activities.  There was a risk of creating another transition if the Council encouraged parents into either school based or private nurseries.  School based nurseries could also be term time only which did not suit some parent’s needs.

·                     The surplus capacity for those going into reception at Primary School overall was 27% in Torquay, 25% in Paignton and 38% in Brixham.  The Council was working with both early years and schools to see what was coming through.  There was only one bulge year for secondary schools.  In Paignton and Torquay secondary numbers were more consistent with numbers still falling in Brixham but not at the rate they were previously.  These figures were monitored each term.

·                     There were 5666 children aged 0 to 4 years old out of 26115 children.  Family Hubs were working with families and encouraging them to access provision and support their development.  There has been an increase in development of young children which takes the Council above national levels.

Members noted the update and thanked Officers for their work.